The Lead

A century ago, Sigmund Freud developed the radical idea that there is a lot more going on inside our heads that we know. Today, many doctors (and patients) still stick by his groundbreaking theory. But it comes with a problem. As neuroscientist Eric Kandel notes in his book...

FREE Email Newsletter

Daily news and top headlines for manufacturing professionals

A pesticide that’s often used in and around homes across the U.S. has now been linked to an increased risk of ADHD. In a report published in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Rutgers scientists and colleagues from Emory University, the University of Rochester Medical Center, and Wake Forest University released...

3D printing is a huge trend in manufacturing, because it essentially is manufacturing. In many manufacturing-related sectors, 3D printing is quickly becoming a game changer because is fast, cheap, and completely customizable. Many have high expectations for 3D printing in the near future...

A recent survey conducted by a medical technology trade group blames a tax on medical devices for about 18,500 industry job cuts in the last two years. The Advanced Medical Technology Association said the tax -- which was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act to generate revenue for the law -- resulted in 4,500 job...

Like many inventors, Thomas Edison started out as a teenage tinkerer with empty pockets. But his work on improving the telegraph led him to a better stock market ticker and a valuable patent, which he sold for $10,000 to Western Union. He used the money to build a lab in Menlo Park, N.J., and amp up his work with...

Johnson & Johnson has begun testing an Ebola vaccine in humans intended to counter a strain of the virus similar to the one that has wreaked havoc in West Africa. The company said Tuesday that the first volunteers have received an initial dose and that, in a partnership Bavarian Nordic AS,...

The Food and Drug Administration approved 41 first-of-a-kind drugs in 2014, including a record number of medicines for rare diseases, pushing the agency's annual tally of drug approvals to its highest level in 18 years. FDA drug approvals are considered a barometer of industry innovation and the federal...

There's no skunky bar odor amid the beer taps. Instead of booze, colored water fills the bottles. The real alcohol is locked away but still close enough for the extra temptation of smell — and to test the safety of a new drug designed to help heavy drinkers say "when" sooner than usual. The replica of a fully stocked bar inside...

Here’s an idea for a smarter business suit, if your business is fighting Ebola or some other deadly infectious disease. The suit was designed by a team from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., that included students, engineers, medical and public health specialists, an architect, and even fashion...

Hundreds of British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline's 17,000 U.S.-based employees will lose their jobs by the end of next year under the pharmaceutical industry's latest restructuring. GlaxoSmithKline PLC, best known for its widely used asthma inhaler Advair, is making changes worldwide that are meant...

The Ebola scare has subsided in the United States, at least temporarily, but an Alabama manufacturer is still trying to catch up with a glut of orders for gear to protect against the disease. Located in north Alabama, the family-owned Kappler Inc. of Guntersville typically gets only a few orders annually...

GE scientists are working on a wearable, high-resolution imaging “helmet” that would allow doctors to observe the brain on the cellular level. The portable device could also allow doctors to study motor activity in the brain, since patients will be able to move around as their brains are being...

EaglePicher Technologies plans to expand its plant and hire more employees in Joplin after receiving a $22 million federal contract. The company will use the Department of Defense grant to produce new lithium-ion batteries, The Joplin Globe reported. Company officials...

Lombard Medical, Inc., a medical device company focused on Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the way for manufacturing to commence at Lombard Medical's new...

The booming new marijuana industry has an image problem. Not with government officials and the public — but with other businesses. From crime fears to smell complaints, new marijuana retailers and growers face suspicion and sometimes open antagonism from their commercial...

Officials say HealthCare.gov has gotten cybersecurity upgrades ahead of a Nov. 15 start for the second open enrollment season under President Barack Obama's health care law. Andy Slavitt, overseeing the complex technology, says the facility that hosts HealthCare.gov is now certified to meet the...

Far from the Ebola hot zone, the sewing and gluing machines at a factory in China have been whirring more than usual to produce crucial yellow suits that protect the front-line medics more than 7,000 miles away in West Africa. The Weifang Lakeland Safety Products factory in the eastern Shandong...

Marijuana activists who have longed for decades to end America's drug war pocketed more major victories Tuesday, with Oregon and the nation's capital approving recreational pot use. The advocates believed they also have another win, too, in Alaska, as a legal pot...

Novartis has announced more layoffs at its manufacturing plant in Lincoln. Company spokeswoman Julie Masow tells the Lincoln Journal Star that 75 jobs were eliminated Thursday. That includes 31 positions that were open. The cuts represent the third phase of restructuring at the plant that Novartis...

A $500 million lawsuit against Kimberly-Clark Corp. alleges the company falsely claimed its surgical gowns protected against Ebola and other infectious diseases. The suit, filed Wednesday in federal court, alleges that the multinational company knew for at least a year that its Microcool Breathable High...

A Chinese pharmaceutical ingredients maker is planning to invest $22.5 million to establish operations in Virginia, creating 376 jobs. Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Thursday that UniTao Pharmaceuticals LLC has purchased the Boehringer Ingelheim plant that's slated to close by the end of the year. Officials say the project is a...

Novo Nordisk, a global pharmaceutical company that produces medicines for patients with diabetes, hemophilia, or growth-related disorders, announced plans to hire up to 90 people at its newly-acquired manufacturing plant in West Lebanon, NH. The facility was formerly owned by Olympus...

Google is working on a cancer-detecting pill in its latest effort to push the boundaries of technology. Still in the experimental stage, the pill is packed with tiny magnetic particles, which can travel through a patient's bloodstream, search for malignant cells and report their findings to a sensor on a wearable...

Johnson & Johnson Innovation today announced the opening of the Asia Pacific Innovation Center, located in Shanghai with satellites in Singapore, Australia, and Japan. The Asia Pacific Innovation Center extends the network of Johnson & Johnson Innovation Centers in life sciences hotspots around...

U.S. stocks rose early Tuesday as investors weighed earnings reports from several companies and awaited news from a two-day U.S. Federal Reserve meeting that ends tomorrow. KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 66 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,884 as of 9:55 a.m. The Standard &...

The Canadian drugmaker Valeant said it would be willing to raise its takeover bid for Allergan by almost 12 percent, which would mean $200 or more per share for the maker of Botox. The letter to Allergan's board Monday did not break down the exact terms of the new offer, but Valeant...